Bill would restore ban on funeral protests

Lawmaker wants to prohibit Westboro-like demonstrations

12:12 PM,
May 9, 2013

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State Sen. Francis Thompson says he would like to ban protests at military funerals, as the Legislature did with a Thompson bill adopted last year. But the U.S. Supreme Court said in another case that's going too far.

Instead, Thompson's SB72, which Rep. Henry Burns, R-Haughton, guided Wednesday through the House Criminal Justice Committee, sets distances away from funerals, funeral processions and burials that protestors must obey or go to jail.

Burns said current state law has a "blanket prohibition" against protesting at funerals. The bill takes that blanket off, instead setting ...